In the manufacture of vehicles, such as passenger cars and trucks, there are many safety standards that must be met by the vehicles to reduce the likelihood and/or severity of injury to occupants during an accident. For example, in the United States the safety standard FMVSS 208 deals with the risk of knee injury arising from contacting the vehicle instrument panel during a frontal crash. In order to meet the safety standard, portions of an instrument panel assembly are required to absorb at least some of the energy of an impact by the knees of the front seat occupants during a crash. A portion of the instrument panel that is configured to sustain an impact from the knees of a front seat occupant during a crash is called a bolster. This is the portion of the instrument panel below the belt line.
Government tests are conducted on vehicles to determine if they meet the safety standard, based on the statistically median-sized male occupant. The median size is a statistically determined size whereby 50 percent of the population is larger and 50 percent of the population is smaller.
In some vehicles, the problem of meeting this safety standard is complicated by the fact that the vehicle's glove box is positioned in the same area that is expected to be impacted by the knees of the median-sized passenger during a crash.
In order to provide a glove box in the area of expected impact and still meet the aforementioned safety standard, some manufacturers provide a glove box panel subassembly 10 as shown in FIG. 1. The subassembly 10 mounts to a cross-brace 12, which typically extends between a first A pillar 14 and a second A pillar (not shown) on a vehicle. Mounted to the cross-brace 12 are two energy absorption brackets 16 that are generally D shaped. The energy absorption brackets 16 are designed to deform to absorb energy from an impact from the passenger's knees during a crash. By absorbing the impact energy, the passenger is less likely to incur severe knee injury. Furthermore, the severity of any leg injury resulting from impact with the glove box portion of the instrument panel is reduced.
Reference is made to FIGS. 2a and 2b. The energy absorption brackets 16 are essentially D-shaped with a forward portion 18, which is generally C-shaped, and an aft portion 19, which is generally straight.
The energy absorption brackets 16 extend rearward from the cross-brace 12. In general, ‘forward’ refers to the direction towards the front of the vehicle from a point inside the vehicle, and ‘rearward’ or ‘aft’ refer to the direction towards the rear of the vehicle from a point inside the vehicle.
A glove box door 20 having a bottom edge 21 is typically hingedly mounted for movement relative to the energy absorption brackets 16 between an open and a closed position.
The glove box door 20 has a forward face 22 and an aft face 24. A storage bin 26 is attached to the forward face 22. The glove box door 20 moves between an open position, as shown in FIG. 2a, and a closed position, as shown in FIG. 2b. In the open position (FIG. 2a), the storage bin 26 may be filled with miscellaneous articles. In the closed position (FIG. 2b), the forward face 22 of the glove box door 20 is in close proximity to the energy absorption brackets 16. During a crash, the impact energy from the passenger's knees on the glove box door 20 is transferred to the energy absorption brackets 16 through straight aft portions 19, and is absorbed by the energy absorption brackets 16.
Referring to FIG. 1, the glove box door 20 is typically made from a polymeric material and is injection molded. The injection molding process can itself negatively affect the strength of the plastic material. Thus, the glove box door 20 is typically not considered to be capable of sustaining a substantial portion of the load that results from an impact by the passenger's knees during a crash. Although injection molded pieces have good appearance characteristics, they do not usually have much strength and thus require additional strengthening such as metal plates or wide contact areas with the brackets.
In order to absorb the impact energy from the passenger's knees, the energy absorption brackets 16 are typically positioned so that they are each positioned to be directly in line with the expected position of the knee of the median-sized passenger when the instrument panel is impacted by the passenger's knee during a crash. As a result, the distance “W” between the energy absorption brackets 16 is determined by the distance between the knees of the median-sized passenger.
As a result of the close proximity between the energy absorption brackets 16 and the glove box door 20, the storage bin 26 cannot extend along the portions of the forward face 22 of the glove box door 20 which lie adjacent the energy absorption brackets 16. Thus, the storage bin 26 is divided into a primary bin 28 and a secondary bin 30. The size of the primary bin 28 is limited such that it has a width that is less than “W” so as not to interfere with the position of the energy absorption brackets 16. The secondary bin 30 may be provided but is typically only capable of holding small articles. In general, the storage capacity and the usefulness of the bins 28 and 30 are compromised by the presence of the energy absorption brackets 16.
The aft face 24 of the glove box door 20 faces the occupants of the vehicle and may be covered by an aft layer 32, which is provided in accordance with the design of the rest of the interior viewable surfaces of the vehicle.
There is a need for an improved instrument panel subassembly for passenger vehicles that at least partially resolves the problems described above.